MicroStrategy falls as much as 18%

Shares of Micro strategy fell on Tuesday along with the price of bitcoinas the company bought even more of the cryptocurrency.

Shares were last down 5.67%. Earlier, it fell by as much as 18%.

The move came after MicroStrategy bought an additional 9,245 bitcoins for about $623 million, according to filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company used $592.3 million in net income from a recent private offering of convertible senior notes and excess cash to make his purchase.

MicroStrategy made a similar move last week, buying 12,000 bitcoins for nearly $822 million after selling debt as bitcoin climbed to all-time highs. The company now holds a total of 214,246 bitcoins, that is announced Tuesday.

Meanwhile, bitcoin fell on Tuesday, sliding below $63,000 at one point, about $10,000 below last week’s record high. MicroStrategy tends to trade in tandem with cryptocurrency.

Key catalysts such as spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and April’s upcoming “halving” event — which cuts the reward for mining bitcoin in half to limit supply — have helped buoy the leading crypto and stocks tied to its performance.

MicroStrategy started out as an enterprise software provider, but began using an aggressive Bitcoin buying strategy in 2020 and has since then primarily traded as a crypto price proxy. This February, the company said it would shift its focus and brand to bitcoin development.

MicroStrategy shares are already up 124% this year, compared to Bitcoin’s 50% rise. Both started to slide last week as investors took profits.